Cyclone Jawad: Major storm brewing in Bay of Bengal threatens three Indian states
The eastern coast of India is bracing for a cyclone brewing in the Bay of Bengal, which is likely to make landfall on Sunday.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an extensive rain warning to three eastern states, West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh in view of the cyclone.
The IMD said a deep depression over the Bay of Bengal had intensified into a cyclonic storm in just 12 hours.
Jawad is likely to reach the west-central Bay of Bengal near the coast of Andhra Pradesh on Saturday morning. The cyclone will then move north-eastwards towards Puri in Odisha on Sunday morning.
The wind speed is predicted to reach up to 100 kmph, gusting to 110 kmph during landfall. The IMD has issued a red alert for “heavy” to “very heavy” rainfall in four districts of Odisha.
"The rainfall intensity over Andhra Pradesh and Odisha will increase from Friday evening," Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, director general of IMD was quoted by Indian Express as saying.
He added: "The cyclone is expected to travel along the Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coasts during the evening hours of Saturday, and will come closest near Puri on Sunday morning. The cyclone will then recurve and move north-northwest towards West Bengal, where heavy to very heavy rainfall will commence from Sunday onwards".
Almost 50 teams from the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) have been deployed in the three states, while a further 18 are on standby. In Odisha 60 additional state disaster rescue teams and 172 fire department teams will be deployed, the state government announced.
At least 95 trains have been cancelled.
This is the third cyclone to hit Odisha in 2021. Jawad also happens to be the first cyclone to hit the state in the winter month of December for120 years.
According to meteorologists, cyclones usually occur in the pre-monsoon months of March to May and post-monsoon months of October to December in India.
However, due to the rising sea surface temperature of the Bay of Bengal, which is currently 1-2 degrees Celsius higher than normal, conditions are favourable for cyclones.
There has also been warnings of flooding.
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